"Couldn't" is a bit unfair. The article seems to imply that it wasn't from a lack of trying, but a lack of interest, and a company only took on the challenge after the issue became considered an issue of national pride and came to light.
The numbers given suggested that it cost just over $17 million to import the pen tips to manufacture 38 billion pens. Which puts the cost per tip at $0.00045/piece.
It's not hard to see why manufacturers wouldn't bother creating a process and tooling for that if it already exists.
More importantly, the article put emphasis on the idea that once the government complained about it, something was done quite quickly. Which is completely different story to a military jet engine, which is being researched, funded and developed by government-linked organizations.
Indeed, a aviation company ( Miles Aircraft ) in my home town took a license from Bic in the late 1940s to start manufacture of their roller-ball Biro pen.
I have a hard time believing that China couldn't replicate that technology for 70 years.
The numbers given suggested that it cost just over $17 million to import the pen tips to manufacture 38 billion pens. Which puts the cost per tip at $0.00045/piece.
It's not hard to see why manufacturers wouldn't bother creating a process and tooling for that if it already exists.
More importantly, the article put emphasis on the idea that once the government complained about it, something was done quite quickly. Which is completely different story to a military jet engine, which is being researched, funded and developed by government-linked organizations.